GYG Day 14 Speak like a native: Corned Beef, Baked Beans and F**ked.

At the meat counter in our local supermarket I often hear people pronouncing the ‚corned’ (beef) by separating the word into ‘corn’ and ‘ed’. The same goes for baked beans, but not at the meats counter obviously. Thankfully I don’t hear the word ‘f**ked’ very often in a German supermarket – that was just an eye-catcher.

Did you know there are rules which determine how you pronounce the ‘ed’ at the end of a regular verb (a verb, which ends in ‘(e)d’ in the past)?

Let’s start with the verbs ‘decide’ and ‘last’ first. We pronounce the ‘ed’ as ‘id’

Any regular verb, which ends in the ‘d’ or ‘t’ SOUND, the ‘ed’ is pronounced as ‘id’

What about ‘bake’, ‘pass’, ‘watch’, ‘wash’ and ‘drop’?

Any regular verb, which ends in the ‘k’, ‘s’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, or ‘p’  SOUND, the ‘ed’ is pronounced as ‘t’

The majority of regular verbs (with the exception of the above), the ‘ed’ is simply pronounced as ‘d’

Remember if you want to get a bottle of that new brand of Vodka ‘F**KED’, you will know how to say it correctly.

P.S. Public health warning: Guys, please, don’t ask a female assistant where you can get ‘F**KED’ !!!

P.S.S. Did you know that if a regular verb ending in a ‘Y’ has a consonant before the ‘Y’ (hurry, study, apply), you replace the ‘Y’ with and ‘i’ and add ‘ed’ (hurried, studied, applied)? If the ‘Y’ has a vowel before it (play, enjoy), it keeps the ‘Y’ and adds ‘ed’ (played, enjoyed)

Meat counter (Fleischtheke), to pronounce (aussprechen), to determine (bestimmen), exception (Ausnahme), to replace (ersetzen), vowel (Vokal)

Wanna find out more about spelling nouns, verbs and adjectives? You could wait till later in the GYG 50 challenge or cheat and check out pages 298/299 of the English Grammar in Use.

*this is an affiliate link, so if you buy the book through this link, I will receive a small commission and no extra cost to you. Thanx 4 your support.

To recommend (empfehlen), commission (Provision),

2 Gedanken zu „GYG Day 14 Speak like a native: Corned Beef, Baked Beans and F**ked.

  1. Jenny Antworten

    I‘m sorry, Dave, but in Germany Corned Beef or Cornedbeef is according to Duden correctly pronounced as [ˈkɔrn(ə)t ˈbiːf] because we consider it (unfortunately!!!!) as a German word of English origin. [ˈkɔːɐ̯n(ə)t ˈbiːf] is also accepted but not that common. However, my toe nails roll up whenever I hear someone asking for Koor-nett Bieeeef. It‘s the same with „steak“ – my mother calls it Schteek and to my amazement Duden lists that as valid alternative, too: [ʃteːk]. Aaaah.

    Well, pronunciation can be very tricky. Thank god there‘s another drink you can order if you don’t know how to say „F**ked“, because next to the mentioned vodka there‘s also a liqueur with the easier German name „F**ken“. 😉

    • Dave Preston Autor des BeitragsAntworten

      Wow thanx 4 the info, naturally it does make sense but I would never have thought that ‚Corned beef‘ and the like would be considered German terms. In that case I have to keep my mouth shut at the meats counter when I next hear it pronounced like that. I guess it just goes with the ‚English trainer‘ coach.

      As for ‚F**ken‘, I’m on to it. I just hope the female supermarket assistant doesn’t punch me on the nose (at best) when I ask „Ich will F**cken“!!!!

Schreibe einen Kommentar zu Dave Preston Antworten abbrechen

Deine E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht veröffentlicht. Erforderliche Felder sind mit * markiert